Dual-layer detectors offer the potential for energy separation, allowing for lesion differentiation and material decomposition without the effects of motion blur that occur in dual-energy detection. We have proposed a direct/indirect dual-layer amorphous selenium (a-Se) detector, in which the direct conversion top layer absorbs low energy x-rays and higher energy x-rays pass through to be absorbed by the indirect conversion bottom layer. First studies of the indirect layer, consisting of a thin-film transistor (TFT) flat panel detector (FPD) with an a-Se photoconductive layer, show promising results, but the MTF was limited by the performance of the gadolinium oxysulfide scintillator used. To improve spatial resolution, a CsI:Tl scintillator should be employed. Unfortunately, the emission peak of CsI:Tl scintillators falls outside optimal wavelengths for a-Se photoconduction. By alloying the a-Se with Te and operating at high fields, we improve absorption and signal production in the FPD. In this work, this is we fabricate single pixel a-Se-Te detectors with a parylene blocking layer and give results for Te concentrations of 0%, 10%, 15%, and 20%. While leakage currents and lag increase with Te content, conversion efficiency is improved by over 30%, showing promise for implementation into an FPD with a CsI:Tl scintillator.
In medical imaging, material decomposition and lesion differentiation are essential for the early detection of many severe and deadly diseases. While standard flat panel imagers are capable of providing high-resolution images, they lack the ability to differentiate between X-ray energies and, therefore, soft and hard tissues. Detection of multiple X-ray energies by dual-shot, photon counting, or dual-layer detectors provides a route for differentiation of these tissues based on the spectrum observed; multiple images may be generated based on the energies, allowing for subtraction and a more detailed image of tissues and calcifications. To improve the resolution, dose level, and motion artifacts of these imagers, we propose a new dual-layer detector consisting of a direct conversion amorphous selenium top layer, followed by an indirect conversion scintillator/amorphous selenium bottom layer. In this work, we present the first steps towards building this detector by characterizing the performance of the bottom indirect flat panel. We show that the blocking layer chosen, though unoptimized, performs adequately up to 50 V/um and have fabricated the detector, which will be evaluated for detective quantum efficiency and modulation transfer function.
A new high dynamic range CMOS x-ray detector is described. This sensor was designed specifically for x-ray imaging as opposed to the common approach of modifying a 3T optical sensor design. This allowed for a highly linear, wide dynamic range operation that has otherwise been a major drawback of CMOS x-ray detectors. The design is scalable from small tiles to large wafer-scale imagers fabricated on 300mm wafers. The performance of such a detector built using a 9.4cm x 9.4cm tile is reported. The pixel size of this detector is 76 μm and it can be operated in the native resolution or 2x2 binned mode. Measurements were performed with a thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) scintillator deposited on a reflective aluminum substrate. The imager was operated at 30 frames/second. The linearity, dynamic range, sensitivity, MTF, NPS and DQE at RQA5 were measured using the standard protocols. Linearity was measured to be better than 0.2%. Using 600 μm CsI(Tl) scintillator, the maximum linear dose was 9 μGy with high gain and 56 μGy with low gain settings. This is comparable to conventional amorphous silicon flat panel detectors. The MTF is dominated by the scintillator and is 58% at 1 lp/mm and 28% at 2 lp/mm. The DQE is 70% at 0 lp/mm and 12% at the Nyquist frequency of 6.6 lp/mm. The high resolution combined with the large dynamic range and excellent DQE makes this CMOS detector particularly suitable for dynamic imaging including fluoroscopy, angiography and conebeam CT.
The focus of this work was to improve the DQE performance of a
full-field digital mammography (FFDM) system by
means of selecting an optimal X-ray tube anode-filter combination in conjunction with an optimal scintillator
configuration. The flat panel detector in this work is a Varian PaxScan 3024M. The detector technology is comprised of
a 2816 row × 3584 column amorphous silicon (a-Si) photodiode array with a pixel pitch of 83μm. The scintillator is
cesium iodide and is deposited directly onto the photodiode array and available with configurable optical and x-ray
properties. Two X-ray beam spectra were generated with the anode/filter combinations, Molybdenum/Molybdenum
(Mo/Mo) and Tungsten/Aluminum (W/Al), to evaluate the imaging performance of two types of scintillators, high
resolution (HR) type and high light output (HL) type. The results for the HR scintillator with W/Al anode-filter (HRW/
Al) yielded a DQE(0) of 67%, while HR-Mo/Mo was lower with a DQE(0) of 50%. In addition, the DQE(0) of the
HR-W/Al configuration was comparable to the DQE(0) of the HL-Mo/Mo configuration. The significance of this result
is the HR type scintillator yields about twice the light output with the W/Al spectrum, at about half the dose, as
compared to the Mo/Mo spectrum. The light output or sensitivity was measured in analog-to-digital convertor units
(ADU) per dose. The sensitivities (ADU/uGy) were 8.6, 16.8 and 25.4 for HR-Mo/Mo, HR-W/Al, HL-Mo/Mo,
respectively. The Nyquist frequency for the 83 μm pixel is 6 lp/mm. The MTF at 5 lp/mm for HR-Mo/Mo and HR-W/Al
were equivalent at 37%, while the HL-Mo/Mo MTF was 24%. According to the DQE metric, the more favorable anodefilter
combination was W/Al with the HR scintillator. Future testing will evaluate the HL-W/Al configuration, as well as
other x-ray filters materials and other scintillator optimizations. While higher DQE values were achieved, the more
general conclusion is that the imaging performance can be tuned as required by the application by modifying optical and
x-ray properties of the scintillator to match the spectral output of the chosen anode-filter combination.
Lag and sensitivity modulation are well known temporal artifacts of a-Si photodiode based flat panel detectors. Both
effects are caused by charge carriers being trapped in the semiconductor. Trapping and releasing of these carriers is a
statistical process with time constants much longer than the frame time of flat panel detectors. One way to reduce these
temporal artifacts is to keep the traps filled by applying a pulse of light over the entire detector area every frame before
the x-ray exposure. This paper describes an alternative method, forward biasing the a-Si photodiodes and supplying free
carriers to fill the traps. The array photodiodes are forward biased and then reversed biased again every frame between
the panel readout and x-ray exposure. The method requires no change to the mechanical construction of the detector,
only minor modifications of the detector electronics and no image post processing. An existing flat panel detector was
modified and evaluated for lag and sensitivity modulation. The required changes of the panel configuration, readout
scheme and readout timing are presented in this paper. The results of applying the new technique are presented and
compared to the standard mode of operation. The improvements are better than an order of magnitude for both
sensitivity modulation and lag; lowering their values to levels comparable to the scintillator afterglow. To differentiate
the contribution of the a-Si array, from that of the scintillator, a large area light source was used. Possible
implementations and applications of the method are discussed.
Digital flat panel a-Si x-ray detectors can exhibit image lag of several percent. The image lag can limit the temporal
resolution of the detector, and introduce artifacts into CT reconstructions. It is believed that the majority of image lag is
due to defect states, or traps, in the a-Si layer. Software methods to characterize and correct for the image lag exist, but
they may make assumptions such as the system behaves in a linear time-invariant manner. The proposed method of
reducing lag is a hardware solution that makes few additional hardware changes. For pulsed irradiation, the proposed
method inserts a new stage in between the readout of the detector and the data collection stages. During this stage the
photodiode is operated in a forward bias mode, which fills the defect states with charge. Parameters of importance are
current per diode and current duration, which were investigated under light illumination by the following design
parameters: 1.) forward bias voltage across the photodiode and TFT switch, 2.) number of rows simultaneously forward
biased, and 3.) duration of the forward bias current. From measurements, it appears that good design criteria for the
particular imager used are 8 or fewer active rows, 2.9V (or greater) forward bias voltage, and a row frequency of 100
kHz or less. Overall, the forward bias method has been found to reduce first frame lag by as much as 95%. The panel
was also tested under x-ray irradiation. Image lag improved (94% reduction), but the temporal response of the
scintillator became evident in the turn-on step response.
A unique 64-row flat panel (FP) detector has been developed for sub-second multidetector-row CT (MDCT). The intent
was to explore the image quality achievable with relatively inexpensive amorphous silicon (a-Si) compared to existing
diagnostic scanners with discrete crystalline diode detectors. The FP MDCT system is a bench-top design that consists
of three FP modules. Each module uses a 30 cm x 3.3 cm a-Si array with 576 x 64 photodiodes. The photodiodes are
0.52 mm x 0.52 mm, which allows for about twice the spatial resolution of most commercial MDCT scanners. The
modules are arranged in an overlapping geometry, which is sufficient to provide a full-fan 48 cm diameter scan. Scans
were obtained with various detachable scintillators, e.g. ceramic Gd2O2S, particle-in-binder Gd2O2S:Tb and columnar
CsI:Tl. Scan quality was evaluated with a Catphan-500 performance phantom and anthropomorphic phantoms. The FP
MDCT scans demonstrate nearly equivalent performance scans to a commercial 16-slice MDCT scanner at comparable
10 - 20 mGy/100mAs doses. Thus far, a high contrast resolution of 15 lp/cm and a low contrast resolution of 5 mm @
0.3 % have been achieved on 1 second scans. Sub-second scans have been achieved with partial rotations. Since the
future direction of MDCT appears to be in acquiring single organ coverage per scan, future efforts are planned for
increasing the number of detector rows beyond the current 64- rows.
This paper explores the potential of flat panel detectors in sub-second CT scanning applications. Using a PaxScan 4030CB with 600um thick CsI(Tl), a central section of the panel (16 to 32 rows), was scanned at frame rates up to 1000fps. Using this platform, fundamental issues related to high speed scanning were characterized. The offset drift of the imager over 60 seconds was found to be less than 0.014 ppm/sec relative to full scale. The gain stability over a 10 hour period is better than +/- .45%, which is at the resolution limit of the measurement. Two different types of lag measurements were performed in order to separate the photodiode array lag from the CsI afterglow. The panel lag was found to be 0.41% 1st frame and 0.054% 25th frame at 1000fps. The CsI(Tl) afterglow, however, is roughly an order of magnitude higher, dominating the lag for sub-second scans. At 1000fps the 1st frame lag due to afterglow was 3.3% and the 25th frame lag was 0.34%. Both the lag and afterglow are independent of signal level and each follows a simple power law evolution versus time. Reconstructions of anatomical phantoms and the CATPHAN 500 phantom are presented. With a 2 second, 1200 projection scan of the CATPHAN phantom at 600fps in 32 slice mode, using 120kVp and CTDI100 of 43.2mGy, 0.3% contrast resolution for a 6mm diameter target, can be visualized. In addition, 15lp/cm spatial resolution was achieved with a 2mm slice and a central CTDI100 of 10.8mGy.
The dynamic range of many flat panel imaging systems are fundamentally limited by the dynamic range of the charge amplifier and readout signal processing. We developed two new flat panel readout methods that achieve extended dynamic range by changing the read out charge amplifier feedback capacitance dynamically and on a real-time basis. In one method, the feedback capacitor is selected automatically by a level sensing circuit, pixel-by-pixel, based on its exposure level. Alternatively, capacitor selection is driven externally, such that each pixel is read out two (or more) times, each time with increased feedback capacitance. Both methods allow the acquisition of X-ray image data with a dynamic range approaching the fundamental limits of flat panel pixels. Data with an equivalent bit depth of better than 16 bits are made available for further image processing. Successful implementation of these methods requires careful matching of selectable capacitor values and switching thresholds, with the imager noise and sensitivity characteristics, to insure X-ray quantum limited operation over the whole extended dynamic range. Successful implementation also depends on the use of new calibration methods and image reconstruction algorithms, to insure artifact free rebuilding of linear image data by the downstream image processing systems.
The multiple gain ranging flat panel readout method extends the utility of flat panel imagers and paves the way to new flat panel applications, such as cone beam CT. We believe that this method will provide a valuable extension to the clinical application of flat panel imagers.
This paper describes a new flat panel imager designed for use in cardiovascular and mobile C-arm imaging systems. The a-Si sensor array has a 1024 x 1024 matrix with a pixel pitch of 194 μm, resulting in an active area of 198.7 mm x 198.7 mm. The imager allows frame rates of up to 30 fps in full resolution fluoroscopy mode
and up to 60 fps in a 2 x 2 binned low dose fluoroscopy mode. Typically, a 600 μm thick deposited columnar CsI(Tl) layer is used as the scintillator.
Improvements in the pixel architecture, charge amplifier ASICs, and system level electronics resulted in a very low electronic noise floor, such that both the fluoroscopy and low dose fluoroscopy modes of the panel are x-ray quantum limited below 1 μR/frame.
Low power consumption electronics combined with a mechanical design optimized for heat transfer and dissipation makes air-cooling sufficient for most environments. The small size of 24.1 x 24.1 x 6 cm and the weight of only 4.1 kg meet the requirements of C-Arm systems. Special consideration was given to the border around the active area, which has been reduced to 2 cm. Reported performance parameters include linearity, lag, contrast ratio, MTF, and DQE. For the full resolution mode, the MTF is greater than 0.53 and 0.21 at 1
and 2 lp/mm, respectively. DQE measured at 22 nGy/frame was greater than 0.68, 0.50, and 0.23 at 0, 1, and 2 lp/mm, respectively.
Preliminary results are presented from the PaxScan 4030A; a 40x30cm, 2048 x 1536 landscape, flat panel imager, with 194um pixel pitch. This imager builds on our experience with the PaxScan 2520, a 127um real-time flat panel detector capable of both high-resolution radiography and low dose fluoroscopy. While the PS2520 has been applied in C-arms, neuroangiography, cardiac imaging and small area radiographic units, the larger active area of the PaxScan 4030A addresses the broader applications of angiography, general R&F and cone-beam CT. The PaxScan 4030A has the same electrical and software interfaces as the PS2520; however, a number of innovations have been incorporated into the 4030A to increase its versatility. The most obvious change is that the data interface between the receptor and command processor has been reduced to one very flexible and thin fiber-optic cable. A second new feature for the 4030A is the use of split datalines. Split datalines facilitate scanning the two halves of the array in parallel, cutting the readout time in half and increasing the time window for pulsed x-ray delivery to 15ms at 30fps. In addition, split datalines result in lower noise, which, coupled with the larger signal of the 194um pixels, enables high quality imaging at lower fluoroscopy doses rates.
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